


eps.4.???.w3lc0me.to.the.d011h0us3

by elliotdilaurentis99



Category: Mr. Robot (TV)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Hospitals, Injury Recovery, Kidnapping, Missing Persons, Other, Psychological Torture, Rescue Missions, Stabbing, Trapped
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-15 09:54:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19293340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elliotdilaurentis99/pseuds/elliotdilaurentis99
Summary: "Where the fuck am I?"Elliot wakes up one day in a strange bedroom after getting drugged the previous night. The room is painted in a dark blue color, there is a window but it is blocked with concrete wall, the only pieces of furniture are a desk and a chair, the bed he woke up in and a laptop which seems to have a limited connection. He checks the door and notices that there is no handle on the door, he bangs on it repeatedly and screams for help but gets no answer. This is when he realizes: he is trapped.





	1. 01.g0n3.mp3

****

**Prologue - 12 hours gone**

Darlene walks around the busy streets if Lower East Side on a breezy morning at 9 to visit Elliot and discuss the plans of him taking down the Dark Army. She passes through the streets that are completely covered with garbage bags and used containers. She carries two cups of coffee for her and Elliot. She feels the chilly wind blowing on her face as she finally reaches the residence. She climbs up to Elliot's apartment and is about to knock on the door, only to notice that the door is unlocked. "What the fuck?" she mutters as she hears Flipper loudly bark, she could tell that her bark is filled with fear and panic which makes her realize that something terrible has happened. She enters the apartment and sees that it is completely ransacked and Elliot's desktop is still on. Flipper runs next to her and Darlene picks her up.

She repeated calls for Elliot but gets no response. She even checks inside the bathroom to see if he is in there. She even goes inside Shayla's empty apartment to find him, but he is not there. Darlene later decides to call him, but she hears his phone ring in the apartment. This makes her come to an ugly realization as to what happened to him: **_Elliot's been kidnapped_**.

 

* * *

**12 hours gone**

Elliot wakes up after being unconscious for a few hours, he massages his temple and feels a little groggy. He couldn't remember what happened last night which made him end up in this condition. He opens his eyes wide open and looks around and realizes that he is not in his apartment, he is in an unfamiliar room. He wonders how he got here. He gets up and looks around the room.

The walls are dark blue color and the only pieces of furniture in the room are a bed and a desk. He notices a window and tries to look outside, he opens it, only to reveal a hard concrete blocking the view. Elliot suddenly begins to feel breathless, he feels his heart beating rapidly in his chest. He finally realizes that he has been kidnapped by someone. He runs towards the door and notices that there is no handle on it, making him panic further. "HEY!!!! IS ANYONE OUT THERE????? LET ME OUTTA HERE!!!!" He yells in a hysterical manner as he bangs on the door, he continues "I NEED TO KNOW WHERE THE FUCK AM I!!! HEY!!!!".

"It's no use." Elliot gets startled by someone saying that, he turns around to see Mr. Robot sitting on the bed, with a hopeless look on his face. Elliot asks in a raspy tone "Where the fuck did they bring us?" Mr. Robot looks up and replies "We don't know, but it seems like they want you for something important." Mr. Robot later tells Elliot "Last night, when you were working on your plan, there was a knock on the door and it was Vera and his men. One of the cronies injected a sedative into your neck which knocked you out for a few hours and that's how you ended up here." Elliot asks "What does he even want?" Mr. Robot answers as he looks up at the CCTV camera "I don't know. But it's not good."

Suddenly, the door automatically opens and both of them immediately stand up. One of the men enters the room and instructs Elliot "Come with us. Vera wants to tell you something important." He makes Elliot wear a zip tie around his wrists and escorts him as Mr. Robot follows him. Elliot follows the hallway with lights as he is taken to a room, the hallway is a bit worn out and rusty, the old rooms show beds and medical equipment, which implies that he is being held in an abandoned hospital. Elliot looks around the place as he gets taken to the old receptionist room where Vera waits for him. 

They settle Elliot down on the desk chair. Across the table he sees Vera smiling at him and say "Rise and Shine, bro.". He asks Elliot in an unsettling tone "Did you get any good sleep? You didn't get any nightmares? Did you?". Elliot feels little nausea from even looking at the sick bastard. He asks in a scared and commanding tone "What did you bring me here for?", Vera replies  "Remember the last time I saw you, I said the universe had plans for us, I was right, it does. I am glad that we found each other, Elliot." He continues as he stands up from the desk "Anyway, what I want is that since my business became successful thanks to the 5/9, I want to spread it around the international markets. And for that, I am giving you an offer you can't refuse. You will be the one to help me make it bigger and successful." Elliot responds "You want me to be your business partner in your dirty black market? I am not fucking down for that." He continues "You have to let me go. I am not gonna do this for you, not even in a billion years." Vera then stands up and walks towards him. He pulls the chair and holds Elliot hair tightly and pulls him up to his face so that he can't look away. Vera threatens him "I told you it's an offer you can't refuse. So unless this business isn't successful, you are gonna be here for a long time. Or else, I will hurt your friends. Do you understand?" He lets go of Elliot and demands his men "Take him back to his room." Two henchmen grab Elliot and drag him back to his room. 

* * *

 

**Darlene's FBI safehouse apartment**

 Darlene logs into her computer and tries to hack into Elliot's phone to see if he contacted anyone before his disappearance. She wonders if Elliot is okay or alive. She checks his phone contacts to see who he contacted. Her name, Angela's and some food delivery service's names are shown. While going through the list, she notices an unknown number.  She asks "Who the fuck is this asshole?". The number had called Elliot several times. She wonders if it could be one of the criminals Elliot took down, because there are a lot of them out there who want him dead, she later wonders what if it's the Dark Army. She worries about what if they've already killed him. She feels like getting help from someone close like either Angela or Dom, but she realizes that neither of them would ever want to help her find Elliot, because Angela had earlier betrayed them and at this point hates Elliot and the last time she saw Dom, she was forced into the Dark Army and blamed Darlene for her life being ruined. Darlene hears Flipper walk towards her and whimper. She pets her as she consoles her by saying "I know Flipper. I miss him too." She continues "I just hope that he is alive. He is all we have." 

She looks back at her desktop to search for the kidnapper's identity. She hacks into the phone and goes to the messages section if there were any messages left behind by the stalker. What she ends up finding are extremely creepy and disturbing messages by the stalker, most of them show graphic and obscene images, which leaves her feeling nauseous and breathless. Still shaken by what she saw, she later goes to the voicemail section to see any more messages left behind. She immediately clicks on a recent voicemail and hears an unfamiliar unsettling voice say this: " _Hey there bro? Did you miss me? I am sure you did. Ever since that night I couldn't stop thinking about you, Elliot. You know, I thought Shayla was the one for me but no, you are my special one, that's why I didn't need her anymore. Ever since 5/9, I gained so much power I can't stop jerking off on it. I was right, we were meant to be together because we are special. That's why I am coming back to you because you need me and you are mine."_ Darlene, shocked from realizing that the stalker is Vera himself, yells "THAT MOTHERFUCKER!!!!" and throws the glass at a wall. She feels angry and worried about the fact that how will she be able to save her brother from an inevitable psychopath and what if like Shayla, she finds Elliot's body in the car trunk next?

 


	2. 02.h0w.d0.w3.get.0ut.avi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elliot meets his new roommate. He finds out something more sinister about the place he is in. Darlene teams up with Tyrell.

****

**Abandoned Hospital - Afternoon**

Elliot sits on his bed in a huddled position, thinking about how will he be able to get out of here and if there is anyone who knows that he is missing so they would find him and rescue him. He asks Mr. Robot "Now, what do we do?", Mr.Robot responds in a frustrated manner, "I don't know, right now they trapped us in an abandoned asylum with a bunch of psychopathic killers who have god knows what weapons, be it a knife or a gun. The only weapon we have is your brain." He continues as he points at the camera "Vera and these guys will never take a no for an answer because their solution is always murder and slavery." He later points at Elliot when he says this "And they would want a person like you." Elliot, trying to sound optimistic about this, replies "But we have to do something." He continues in a stressed tone "I am not gonna wait around for someone to just come and save me from a tower like I am some fucking Rapunzel."  Mr. Robot later responds "But if you try to outsmart him? What if he hurts Darlene? Or Angela? Or what if he kills you so that no one would ever find you?"

Elliot takes this into consideration, realizing that Mr. Robot is right about this. He is in an abandoned building with psychopaths who will kill anyone who tries to escape, every scenario he thought of will end with him or one of his friends dead. Elliot takes a deep breath and tells Mr. Robot "You're right. For now, we might have to wait before we figure something out." Elliot later thinks about something crucial, he asks "What if he is working with Whiterose?" Mr. Robot replies "Nah, he is too smart for that. That asshole thinks of himself as a god, he wouldn't want to have another one beside him." Elliot continues "Then, what is he up to?".

Suddenly, they hear a knock on the wall; it is coming from the other side of the room. "Hello?" They hear a male muffled voice saying this. They hear the knock again and the voice says "Is anyone there?" Elliot goes near the wall, knocks back and replies "Yes." The person responds "Okay, whoever you are, we can't talk right now because he is keeping an eye on us. Just wait till midnight because that's when the security cameras are switched off for about an hour and the guards are on a break. I have to tell you something important." Elliot, wanting to know the answer, asks "Wait, what do you-", he is abruptly cut off by two chimes and a female announcer voice saying "Please go to the office room for an important meeting." The announcer repeats in French and Spanish "Veuillez vous rendre au bureau pour une réunion importante. Por favor, vaya a la sala de la oficina para una reunión importante." The voice tells Elliot through the wall "They are calling me in, I'll talk to you at midnight." The person later leaves his room and leaves Elliot and Mr. Robot confused and shocked about who is this person and why does he want to help?

* * *

**12 A.M - Midnight - 24 Hours gone**

It's about 12.A.M. in the night, but since the window of the rooms are blocked, it fills them with Darkness. Elliot is asleep on his bed but visibly distressed by the nightmares he constantly gets: The day at the barn where the Dark Army held him, Darlene and Dom captive and almost got killed by them, he still gets haunted by them. He could still hear Grant tell him to take care of Whiterose and later kill himself. The nightmare gets cut off when he gets awoken and frightened by someone entering his room. He feels sweaty and breathless from the nightmares as a young Korean man, possibly 26, informs him "It's time. We've only got an hour before they come back." and leaves. Elliot recognizes him as the man who spoke to him on the other side of the wall.

Outside his room, Elliot goes to follow his neighbor around the dark hallways as the guy holds a flashlight to show him around and informs him about the rules of this place and how he and everyone else got here before Elliot, "Every day at midnight the generator goes off, it takes about an hour for the power to come back and while the guys wait, they go out somewhere to possibly smoke a bong or something and when the power gets back on, they come back to check on us to see if we didn't do any mischief or any attempts to get out of this shithole."  He later instructs Elliot about the rooms "When they give one chime, it's time to go back into your room or any other room, but if you don't go back on time, they switch on a blaring alarm and it won't switch off until you go." The man continues to explain Elliot about the escapes "Most of us have tried getting out of this but no one succeeded till today." The man later directs his flashlight at a trash chute, "There is also a trash chute which is about 20 feet tall. Most people tried that, but it didn't work out because they locked it." He continues. "If you walk past the hallway on the 2nd floor, there is a private room which is locked, they allow no one to go there. The only person who can enter that room is that big guy and no one else." Elliot responds "Vera?" The man replies "Yeah, that's his name. How do you know that dude?" Elliot, reluctant to tell him about the psychopath without getting traumatized, finally tells him "He was my girlfriend's drug dealer who saw himself as her lover. I turned him in to the FBI when I found out what he was doing to her and he got back at me by tricking me into breaking him and other psychos like him out and what I got in return is her dead body in the trunk. Her throat was slit." The man ends up feeling bad for Elliot and says "I am so sorry." Elliot responds in a depressed tone, "Yeah well, I was too reckless and arrogant to think he'd be easy to take down."

He later changes his tone and asks his fellow prisoner "So how long did he keep you in here?" the man replies "For about 1 and a half years, there were others before me but most of them had gotten executed or have become a shell of their former selves." He continues, "There are several others here, and since the fsociety's attacks and the global economic meltdown, the crimes around New York have increased, it's like fucking Taxi Driver out there. This made it easy for Vera and his henchmen to abduct both men and women and make them work as slaves for the drug trade and trafficking. And when he gets them here, he makes certain rules for them. One of them is that you cannot talk to your fellow prisoners or ever ask them about their history until the blackout." Elliot, shocked by this, asks "How long has he been doing this for?"  The man replies "For past 6-7 years." Elliot later asks, "And what happens if you disobey him?" The man doesn't want to scare Elliot with what he is about to tell him, but he tells him this after a long pause "If you do, then he will leave you with no food and water for days or weeks or months. He will put you in a dark room where he will punish you for about 2-3 weeks till it breaks you. And possibly he might make you disappear permanently." Elliot, shocked from hearing this, asks "Did he-" the man, knowing what Elliot will ask, replies "Yes" before he could finish the question. As proof, he pulls his long sleeve up to show Elliot cattle prod marks covering his full right arm.

After seeing the scars, he realizes that escaping from this place will be harder than he thought. Moments later, they hear footsteps and chattering from a distance, the man realizing who are coming exclaims "Shit! They are back." He instructs Elliot "We need to go. Now." Both of them run back towards their rooms as one of Vera's henchmen, T-Bone returns to the control room to switch on the control room again. He switches on the computers and checks the CCTV cameras to observe the prisoners. He sees Elliot and his neighbor, who came back to their rooms on time, sleeping on their beds. As he observes, his phone rings, and it turns out to be Vera to call him. He picks up the phone as he asks him _"Are they all in their rooms?"_ T-Bone replies, " _Yes they are, sir."_

* * *

**2 days gone - Elliot's apartment**  - **Morning**

It's been 2 days since Elliot Alderson has been kidnapped by Vera and its unknown where he is being kept. Darlene is still searching for him. Her hair looks a little disheveled and her face looks tired since she hasn't slept the whole night since she was worried about what are they doing with Elliot and where are they keeping him. She is back in her brother's apartment to use his computer to see if there was anything important he was checking out before they got him. She logs into the computer to find out more about Vera and his plan and what did Elliot find on him that caused Vera to go after him. All she knows is that he is a drug dealer that Elliot had to break out but unfortunately had Shayla killed instead. She remembers this because she was with Elliot that day but she couldn't have a proper look of that asshole. She tries to search for a file on him, but there is no trace of him anywhere because he has wiped most of the data out.

Darlene later realizes that Elliot had saved most of the people's data by burning it in a CD. She finds the CD case and tries to find the one where it has his stalker's data in, She prays "Elliot, I am hoping you stored something crucial that would save you." She flips through the collection and she finds a CD with Guns and Roses written on it. She removes it and plays it on the computer. The computer loads the files about Vera that Elliot had hacked into. She opens the files and finds all the data about him, like the WebCam and explicit porn sites, the dark web where sells all of his drugs and weapons and even his twitter account where he would open up about his sadistic pleasures, and all the evidences that Elliot took of him like the guns and drugs that he sent anonymously to the FBI. Darlene is disgusted by Vera's creepy and sadistic behavior and ends up having the urge to kill him once she finds Elliot.

She later hears the doorknob click, as someone is about to enter, she picks up a glass bottle preparing to attack the intruder who later turns out to be Tyrell, who is in his casual attire wearing a plaid shirt and jeans instead of his suit, surprising Darlene as she says "Tyrell?". Tyrell, trying to calm Darlene tries to tell her "Look, I can explain-" but with the bottle still raised up, she cuts him off by saying "What the fuck are you doing here?" Tyrell answers "I want to see Elliot." Darlene bitterly replies "He is not here." She threatens him "But if you ever try to come near him or even touch him, I will fucking kill you. He wants nothing to do with you. He doesn't even want to see you." Tyrell tries to soothe her by explaining to her "Look, I know I hurt your brother so bad, but I never meant to harm him like that. I love him. I really do." Darlene barks back at him "BULLSHIT. You constantly made creepy advances at him and you even shot him when he refused to be a part of your stupid plan." She raises her voice as she continues, "You even had him manipulated and even went forward with that Stage 2 plan which he didn't even want and thousands of people died because of you, ALL BECAUSE YOU HAD THIS STUPID DAYDREAM THAT YOU BECAME GODS WITH ELLIOT!!!! So this isn't love at all. You don't even know what it is." She continues to yell at him "YOU ONLY LOVED HIS POWER AND SKILLS, BUT YOU DON'T TRULY LOVE ANYONE AT ALL. SO DON'T YOU EVER COME UP WITH THIS CRAP!" This leaves Tyrell on the verge of tears, but he holds back as he talks "I know. I am an idiot. Infact, I am a monster." He continues "I know I shouldn't have done that. But all I wanted was to be with him and come back home to my wife and child. They have taken away both of them from me, thanks to the Dark Army. Why did I ever trust them? I was a fool." Darlene is shocked by hearing about this and lowers the glass bottle slowly. Tyrell asks her this "Do you know what it's like to work so hard to be with someone you love only to have it taken away from you?", this causes the memories of Cisco's death and Dom's rejection to come rushing back into Darlene's head, she quietly responds "I do."

Tyrell's eyes become red from all the tears. He sits on the couch with his head on his hands and Darlene joins him on the couch, exhausted from all the yelling. She tells him "The Dark Army really fucked us over." Having no other choice since Tyrell is in the same position as others, Darlene makes a deal with him "Okay. I might need your help with something. But promise me after this, you will never see Elliot again." Tyrell feels upset at this as he is exiled from seeing Elliot, but agrees to the deal as he says "Okay, what do you want me to do?" Darlene answers "Elliot has been missing for the past two days. They have abducted him." Tyrell looks aghast hearing about this, he asks "What?", Darlene continues "I know. There is something you should know about this person."

* * *

  **Morning - Abandoned Hospital**

The morning alarm blares loudly around the hallways, waking up everyone, which is almost reminiscent of the Holocaust. The alarm almost deafens them and gives them a headache as most of them even cover their ears till they get off their beds and the alarm switches off.  The doors of all the rooms automatically open and all the captives, including Elliot, get out of their rooms. The guards assemble them to stand near the corridor as they wait for Vera to arrive to give them work. Elliot stands next to the door folding his arms. The man whom he met last night and told him about the whole place stands next to him and on his other side, Mr. Robot walks in and stands next to him. The man quietly whispers to Elliot "Just stay cool."

They see Vera enter the corridor, overdressed in a golden fur jacket, wife beater, orange pants and dozens of golden chains. He even has a scary look on his face, which is to remind everyone that he is a god in this place and treat him like one. He begins his speech by greeting them with a polite facade "Good morning my friends. I hope you all are enjoying your stay here in my palace. And for the new guests, welcome. I hope you enjoy your stay here." He continues as he strolls down the corridor, studying everyone's faces "You know? I see a lot of faces in this place. Some who are a wimp, and others who are born savages, like me. I was once in the same place as you all. I was also damaged as all of you were. But then I learned to use this to form a power where you make everyone else bow down to you. And this is where I am now. I have come this far. And soon, all of you will bow down to me." He continues as he turns to face Elliot "And some of you would want to work with me. Because the cosmos and the stars have inspired us to be a great army which no one will defeat." Elliot remarks this as "Bullshit." in his head, not wanting to buy his crapsack backstory

Vera ends his speech by saying "The time has given us this opportunity to create this new world, a world full of savages and rebels and we will let nothing stop us. We will all rise and when we succeed, a whole new world will be born." Mr. Robot later remembers that Angela had said something like this before. Vera then commands "So every one of you will be given different jobs to do today. We have to make this business more successful. And none of you will try to talk to others while you work. And if any of you disobey me, there will be some serious consequences."

Vera leaves as his men orders the prisoners to go with them to assign them in different jobs. Elliot looks at him walk away and realizes something about him. He turns to Mr.Robot and asks "Is it just me or does he-" Mr. Robot answers "He is almost like me, but worse. Infact, equally worse as Whiterose." He sarcastically remarks "We thought one dictator was enough, but now we got two of them." 

Elliot tries to become optimistic about this and explains to him. "Look. They are assigning the prisoners to work and if they assign me to anything related to IT, I could figure out a way to get out of here." Mr. Robot asks in a disgruntled manner "Oh really? How are you so sure about that?" Elliot replies to him "I met with one of the captives last night. He said that at midnight, the generator goes off for an hour. He even mentioned about the staircases and the trash chute." He immediately comes up with an escape plan "I don't know if this will work, but maybe I can hack into the servers to keep the generator off for much longer so that it could give us and others the time to escape and help rescue others and take Vera down." Mr. Robot, still disgruntled responds "I don't know if this will be even more successful because you know how that asshole is. We are stuck in some Jigsaw shit in here. Remember what happened back then at the farmhouse?" Elliot, not wanting to remember anything from that place, responds in a distressed tone "I know." He continues in a determined tone "But this time, I will not screw this one up. I am sure of it."

One henchman shouts at Elliot "Yo. Alderson, are you gonna come in or do I have to make myself louder for you to hear?" Before leaving, Elliot tells Mr. Robot "I have to go now." And walks with the henchman to the office room.

 

 


	3. 03.tr#st.png

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elliot and Mr. Robot talk about trusting strangers. Darlene gets a piece of crucial information from Elliot's landlord about Vera and his cronies. Dom tries to adjust to her new life as a Dark Army mole.

**Afternoon - Tyrell's Brownstone house.**

Darlene and Tyrell view the CCTV footage of the exterior of Elliot's apartment complex at 7 pm, 1 hour before he was abducted. Tyrell impatiently tells Darlene "There has to be something." he asks her "Where was he coming back from?" Darlene responds, "Probably from his new job at a cybersecurity company." she resumes "Usually, he comes back at around 7:30...ish. Actually, I don't know that much about his routine. I haven't been part of his life for a long time." Tyrell sympathetically responds "Yeah. I feel you. I also sometimes wish I could've been part of his life." Darlene turns and glares at him as he skittishly reassures, "But not in the way you were thinking." Darlene turns back to the laptop to look at the footage as Tyrell asks her "Does anyone else know about this?", she replies "So far no one else. I didn't even opt to tell the police because you know there are too many snitches in the FBI. If I do, some Dark Army cronies are gonna tamper with the case and come after him before we do." Tyrell later asks her "What about Angela? Does she know about this?" He continues as he folds his arms "I thought these two were a thing."

Darlene, remembering Angela and her fragile psyche, takes a deep breath before she answers "I haven't told her about this yet. And I think I should keep it like this for a while." Tyrell asks her "Why?", she answers "Because for now, I don't think she wants anything to do with Elliot or me. I feel like she is in a place right now where she doesn't need anyone. That's who she always was." Both of them take a moment to process before Darlene commands him "Okay. We still have to look." They both turn to the footage to see what happened before Elliot fell off from the face of the earth. Tyrell notices something strange in the upper left of the screen, he tells Darlene "Hey, look at that. I think I saw something." He points at the other side of the street-facing Elliot's apartment. They both notice street food stand is on far right. Darlene questions him "Has that guy been standing there the whole day?" Tyrell responds "I don't know." Darlene fast forwards the footage to the last 10 mins. She sees a blue Cadillac enter the street. About 4 guys exit the car and go to the vendor, talking to him but no audio is heard. She later sees them enter Elliot's apartment complex; she grows worried about what might happen next. The gang comes out after 5 minutes, holding Elliot's unconscious body. Darlene, horrified, tearfully exclaims "NO!" and covers her mouth as she cries and Tyrell rubs her back to comfort her.

They see two men stuff Elliot's body in the trunk before they enter the car and drive off the street. Darlene realizes "They were waiting for him to return so they could just grab him. That's why they planted one of their men as the vendor so he could inform them and give them the opportunity. Tyrell asks her "Where the fuck could they take him?"

* * *

 

**Afternoon - FBI Office**

Dom has returned to the FBI Office, the first day as the mole for the Dark Army. She returns to her job for the first time in 3 weeks since the barn incident. She feels much different from before, broken and trapped. Ever since Irving threatened to kill her family all the while forcing her to watch him chop off her former boss/mole Santiago, she has no choice but to work for them. She sits on her desk as her partner, Norm walks up to her with flowers and coffee. He enthusiastically says, "Welcome Back, partner." he continues, "I brought you some flowers and your favorite coffee on your first day back." Dom, in no mood for any of this flatly replies, "Yeah, thanks." Norm, concerned about her well being asks "So how does it feel to be back here?" He sees that Dom is fazed while she is looking at her desktop,  He gets her attention back and asks again "I was saying how..." but Dom interrupts him and answers "It's fine."

Norm realizes that there is something off about her, he asks her "Um...is everything okay?" Dom, surprised, answers "Yeah, it's all good. Why do you ask?".  Norm responds "Well, you've been a bit off since you came back." realizing that she is hiding something, he questions her "Did something bad happen?" Dom, not wanting to talk about the barn incident with anyone, coldly demands Norm "I told you I am okay. I just need to be alone right now." Norm, offended by her cold response, exclaims, "Hey! I am your partner. I need to know what is going on?" Dom, tired of answering him the same question, finally tells him “Norm. I haven't slept or eaten for a while. I feel a bit disoriented right now. So I need to be alone. Okay?" Norm reluctantly agrees "Fine" and leaves her to herself as Dom goes back to put up a straight face and anxiously type on her keyboard to make herself look busy.

* * *

 

**Afternoon - Abandoned Hospital - Conference Room**

Elliot is given a task by Vera to track down the shipments of every drug and weapons in the black market in every country and calculate the sales via E COIN. He sits in a conference room with many others working on the same thing with their laptops. Elliot notices that between the months May-Nov, the sales have come up and down in the shipments to Chicago, Detroit, and El Paso, etc. and sees that the prices had an increase and decrease between 10 million and 20 million dollars. Ever since 5/9, there has been an increase in sales in Vera's business. Mr. Robot appears near him as they both look at the screen. Elliot tells him, "Most of these guys buy and sell it in the form of E COIN. They get paid through that too." He continues, "Their sales in the black market have gone up and down between May and October. It has increased because of 5/9." He repeats it in a regretful tone "It increased because of me."

Mr. Robot, later asks Elliot "What are you thinking right now? How are we gonna get out of this?" Elliot answers "I don't know. But that guy I just met last night, he mentioned about the ground-rules and clever escaping places that a lot of them tried. Maybe he knows something." Mr. Robot, unable to gain trust in the stranger furiously asks Elliot "How do we even know that he is on our side?  Like what if Vera asked him to monitor you?" He reminds him "Remember When Leon was your friend in Prison and he turned out to be a Dark Army rat? The same Leon who almost blew Darlene's brains out in front of you?" Elliot contemplates about this as Mr. Robot continues "Look, I know that we are in a bad place but think about it. You just keep on trusting people too much and see what happens." Elliot glares at him and sarcastically remarks "Easy for you to say." He calls out Mr.Robot "You were not that perfect either. Remember those times you threw me and knocked me down several times and even tried to kill me. I almost died trusting you." Mr. Robot contemplates about what Elliot told him and is about to reply, only to be cut off by a woman telling Elliot "I am sorry to interrupt but I don't think you should talk to anyone while we are working. It's against the rules." Elliot replies "I am very sorry. I'll make sure of that." as they go back to their jobs. Bugsy, one of Vera's henchmen enters the room and glares at them while they work. He reminds them "No talking. It's against the rules." and leaves the room.

Elliot later tells Mr. Robot "Look, we can't talk here we'll discuss the rest of it back in our room." Mr. Robot reluctantly agrees "Okay." and leaves.

* * *

  **Evening - Elliot's apartment**

 Darlene is back in Elliot's apartment complex. She visits his landlord, who has grey hair and beard, wears glasses and wears a flat cap. She knocks on his door, and the landlord opens it. He delightfully greets "Darlene, it's so good to see you." Darlene smiles back and politely replies "It's good to see you too." He asks her "So, how's everything with you?" Darlene, trying to sound optimistic, replies "Well, I've hit a few rough patches. But otherwise, I am doing okay." The landlord lightens the mood by replying "Well, who hasn't?". Both of them take a moment of silence before Darlene asks him "I just wanted to ask you. Last night at around 7, did you notice anything suspicious?" the landlord, puzzled, responds "Suspicious?" Darlene explains "Yeah. Like did you see 4 big guys who might've been giving a small visit to Elliot?" The landlord finally remembers, "Oh yes. Um, they came here and told me they were Elliot's colleagues from his workplace and said that they needed Elliot to help them write a code for a new project. They said that they needed him for a while. They didn't say how long?"

Darlene, knowing that it's not true, asks "OK. And did they tell which place did they work at and what exactly were they working on?" The landlord replies "Well, they didn't say much. But they said they used to work with Elliot at E Corp and they were working on something related to the Washington Township Plant. Like a case or something." Darlene suspiciously questions him "And, you didn't hear any noises or something?" The landlord replies "No." and asks "Why? Did something bad happen?" Darlene calmly responds, "Uh No. But thanks for telling me. I just wanted to know." The landlord chuckles and says "Happy to help." Before shutting the door.

Darlene felt like telling him the truth and asking him to call the cops to find Elliot. But she knows that it won't work. Because if she does, there are so many dangerous possibilities what might happen: 1. Vera and his men might find out about the investigation and might move Elliot to a place where no one will find him. 2. The cops might involve FBI in a missing person case and since they have a lot of moles, the Dark Army might interfere and get to Elliot before they do.

**Author's Note:**

> got this idea from the pll dollhouse episode...plus the title, with some different elements to it.


End file.
